Today I like to recommend an amazing video: Award winning Edinburgh film-maker Walid Salhab has launched the latest edition to a series of short films showcasing Scotland’s beautiful capital city: Kinetic Edinburgh III (Festival City in Motion)

Walid Salhab, a media practice lecturer at Queen Margaret University, has just released his stunning new time-lapse/stop-motion film captures Edinburgh during the 2014 Fringe Festival.

There are some amazing and unique views of Arthur’s Seat, as well as some great footage of Edinburgh Castle, The Scottish Parliament, Scottish National Gallery, St Giles’ Cathedral, Festival Theatre, The Hub, Usher Hall and the majestic firework finale to the International Edinburgh Festival.

Commenting on his new film, Walid said: “I hadn’t planned to make this new film. I was on holiday and became inspired by the creative atmosphere of the Festival. I wanted to offer people a unique view of Edinburgh as a festival city – something they hadn’t seen before.” Walid spent six solid weeks filming Kinetic Edinburgh III and 10,000 static photographs made it to the final edit of the film.

“The idea behind the film is to not capture the Festival itself, but to capture the atmosphere of the city during the Festival – the streets, buildings and parks. The footage of Arthur’s Seat is very rare and difficult to capture with photography. Shooting stop-motion/time-lapse photography involves taking actual photos to create the illusion of movement, rather than using film or video. It’s a painstaking, complicated process with a very low success rate, in that much of the footage is discarded.”

Often dubbed ‘Mr Kinetic’, Walid Salhab has also captivated international audiences with his spectacular portrayal of The Kelpies in Falkirk, Edinburgh in winter (Kinetic Edinburgh II) and the original Kinetic Edinburgh I. Walid’s suite of dynamic kinetic films has achieved millions of hits on social media.

Walid’s first short film, Bra-et Al Rouh (Innocence of the Spirit), about a six year old girl who befriends a homeless man on the streets of the city, won two awards at the Cannes Film Festival.

Thank you, Walid, for giving me the permission to embed your great film into my blog!!